Cowboys moving toward more diversity

Calvin Watkins covers the Houston Rockets and the NBA for ESPN.com. He joined ESPNDallas.com in September 2009. He's covered the Dallas Cowboys and Texas Rangers as well as colleges, boxing and high school sports.

Late last week, the Cowboys promoted Will McClay to assistant director of player personnel to work alongside Tom Ciskowski, who changed his title to director of scouting.

McClay is a key person in the Cowboys front office, along with Ciskowski and Judd Garrett in terms of finding players, college and pro.

But what McClay represents is diversity. He moves towards the top at a very important position in the Cowboys front office, and he's African-American. McClay has a voice with Jerry and Stephen Jones, which is very important in terms of finding players.

There are few African-American head coaches, just three in 2013, and the GM roles are held by few: Ozzie Newsome in Baltimore, Martin Mayhew in Detroit, Jerry Reese with the New York Giants, Reggie McKenzie in Oakland and Rick Smith in Houston are some of the names.

Diversity is important in sports, especially in the front office, and the Cowboys should be commended for what they did for McClay. They didn't move him up because of the color of his skin, but rather for what he's done for the team.